Flaming Orchids and A Red Dawn
by QueenoftheWolves83
Summary: Every day, the people of Arubeate wake to a red dawn. Every night seems to have nothing but bloodshed. Five great families try to kill each other. Love between them is next to impossible. But perhaps a chance meeting could change all that. Where there's a will, there's a way.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own VOCALOID nor any of it's characters. I only own any OCs that appear within.**

 **Summary:** A long time ago, there were five great families: the Kagamine family, the Hamasaki family, the Camui family, the Hatsune family, and the Ushiromiya Family. These five families are, in fact, warrior families and they kill those who would threaten their family. In a world where alliances are forged and alliances are broken, which family will reign supreme?

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 **Chapter 1: Returning home**

Len sighed as he stared out the window. The passing scenery held no interest for him, but it was better than staring at what is in front of him, which was the empty seat on the other side.

 _It's been six years and only_ now _they wish for my return?_ Len thought as he watched the scenery go by. _Why? What is happening that they would want_ me _to return?_

The year is 726 in the year of the Nightingale **[1]** and the five great families were still fighting one another, still fighting to gain control over Arubeate **[2]**. These families have been fighting for millennium. Although, in recent years, the Miyamoto family has decided to take a neutral ground and just deal with doctoring and providing medicine. This is most likely because they finally decided that what the other families had wasn't worth shedding blood over.

Or the family finally gained a new matriarch that was _a lot_ wiser than the previous matriarchs.

 _She must be a smart woman,_ Len thought. _She probably knows that her family is better suited for medicine than for war._

But there is one question that most _definitely_ needed an answer: what started this feud in the first place? And why

 _Damned if I knew why the five-minus one- great families are trying to kill one another,_ Len thought. _Damned if I knew._

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Len stepped out of the coach once they had stopped in front of the gate and he looked at the mansion in trepidation. To say he was not looking forward to this family meeting would be an understatement.

He was dreading this meeting and what it might entail. What it meant for him. Most of all...he was dreading to hear which of his family was killed this time.

 _Who killed who? Or did nobody die in the last five years?_ Len thought. _Although, with my family history, nobody dying is something that_ never _happens._

It was a rather bitter thought.

"Master Len?" the coachman asked, startling the young man.

"Yes, Aito?" Len asked.

"Are you all right?" Aito asked, brows furrowed in concern.

"Yes. I am fine," Len said. "Just steeling myself for what is to come."

"I wouldn't worry too much, Master Len," Aito said as he went to tend the horses. "Lady Rin has missed you greatly."

 _Has she really?_ Len thought. _Or are you just trying to convince me that she did?_

With a sigh, Len started to walk towards the mansion, ready to get this over with.

 **~Time Skip~**

Len took a step inside the mansion, his childhood home. He was rather surprised that nothing had changed; there was no change in decor, no change in furniture, and no change in the paintings on the walls. Nothing. Everything was still the same. It seems no changes has been made in his absence.

Or was it just what he wanted to see? Was it an illusion? A trick of the eye? His mind playing tricks on him?

Len stopped moving as he in thought, rather amused, _Maybe that's why they sent me away; because I'm so paranoid._

Chuckling, he went to the place where he knew his sister would be; the drawing room. Which was on the second floor. So Len started walking up those stairs, trying to quell the dread rising in his heart. Right now what he least wanted to do was talk to his twin.

When he got to the second floor landing, he quietly made his way round the corner to where the drawing room was, rising trepidation in every step.

(He wasn't looking forward to this).

The drawing room was near.

(He hadn't wanted to return).

The door was getting closer.

(He didn't want to be associated with his family name anymore).

And the door was there. He stood there, looking at the door.

(If he didn't want to be associated with his family...then why does he still go by "Kagamine Len?")

Raising a hesitant hand, he placed his knuckles on the door.

(Why didn't he run when the coach had arrived?)

Gulping, he tried to steel his nerves.

(Somehow...he knew this meeting wouldn't end well).

Taking deep breath, Len rapped on the door three times. From within there was a curt, "Come in!"

Len opened the door and within the room he saw his twin, Rin, garbed in a white knee-length sun dress with yellow flowers, sitting on a sofa the color of white, a boy he's never met before, who was standing near Rin, and his cousins, Kagamine Rinto and Kagamine Lenka (who were also twins), both of whom were sitting in matching yellow arm chairs .

Rin and their cousins were conversing (the unfamiliar boy was silent), but they stopped once they saw Len.

"Len! How have you been all these years?" Lenka asked eagerly. She was wearing a simple sleeve-less dress of yellow and white.

"Fine," Len said as he stepped inside and shut the door.

"Last I saw you, you were only twelve," Rinto said. He was wearing a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled to the elbows, black slacks, and black dress shoes.

Len gave no reply as he looked at his sister. Rin said as she stood, "Welcome home, Len."

"...Why am I here?" Len asked, getting straight to the point. Pointing to the silent boy, he demanded, "And who the hell is he?"

"Oh? Him?" Rin looked at the boy as she ignored Len's first question. "That's Cáelán Byrnes. I call him Cáel; he's my bodyguard."

"Bodyguard?"

"The head of each of the five great families have one," Rin said. She seemed quite proud that she was head of the Kagamine family. Her eyes narrowed as she asked, a cool tone to her voice, "Or have you forgotten in your six-year absence?"

"No...never," Len said.

"Good," Rin said as she sat down, crossing her left leg over her right.

"When did you become a head?" Len asked. He couldn't help but pray that nobody had died.

"Three years ago," Rin said briefly. "Mother died."

"What was the cause?"

A brief pause and then, "Illness."

Len narrowed his eyes. He didn't believe her. No...he had no reason to, but he wasn't going to voice what he was thinking. What his suspicions were.

"So why am I here?" Len asked again.

Rin looked up at Cáel. The boy didn't look back, but he gave a silent nod.

Looking back to her brother, Rin finally said, "I have reason to suspect that Ushiromiya family is planning a _war_ against us."

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 ** _A/N: Chapter 1 of "Flaming Orchids and A Red Dawn." What Len is wearing is a white dress shirt, a yellow waistcoat, a black suit jacket, black slacks, and black dress shoes. Read and Review. My first VOCALOID story. Go easy on me. Also, Cáelán Byrnes is my OC. Kagamine RInto and Lenka are the genderswap of Kagamine Rin and Len; they don't belong to me._**

 **[1] "Nightingale" is the name of the century. For many years, people have used the names of birds as the name of the century.**

 **[2] Pronounced as "Aah-rue-bay-tay"**


	2. Chapter 2

_I don't own VOCALOID nor any of it's characters! I do this for fun and I only own my OCs (Rinto and Lenka Kagamine are the derivatives of Rin and Len. A.K.A_ fanloids _. They don't belong to me!)_

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 **Chapter 2: Outcome of the meeting**

" _War_?" Len said.

"Yes...war," Rin said with a nod.

"That's not possible. The Ushiromiya family has always been enemies with the Camui family-" Len was cut off by Rinto's reply of, "Silly boy. Do you honestly believe that with this history of bloodshed, we all each of us has declared one family a respective enemy of another? No. We are each others enemy."

Rin nodded as though she approved what Rinto said. And what the young man said was true; all the families are enemies with each other.

"But there is nothing for the Ushiromiya family to gain by starting a war with the Kagamine family!" Len snapped. "The Camui family owns precious oil fields-oil that we use mostly as a way to light our homes at night or to keep our houses warm during winter! For centuries, the Ushiromiyas have _wanted_ these fields for their own!"

"We do own mines-gold mines, silver mines, copper mines, mines of precious and semi-precious gemstones-remember, Len?" Lenka asked.

"I don't see how our mines would be of value to them," Len said as he rain a hand through his bangs.

"I can," Cáelán said quietly, surprising all but Rin. "The gold, silver, and copper mines contain-as expected-gold, silver, and copper. That material is mined and made into coins, Arubeate's currency. What do you think would happen if the Ushiromiya family gets their hands on those mines?"

"We won't be able to make the chains for bracelets or necklaces and we won't be able to to make rings," Lenka said softly. "Not to mention, they'd be in charge of currency; they could limit the flow of metals from the mines. Limited flow of metals mean not many people will have money."

"Correct," Cáelán nodded. "And if the mines of precious and semi-precious gemstones were to get into their hands-"

"We'd have no way to sustain and support ourselves because we use those gemstones to make jewlery, which we sell to-wouldn't you know?-make money," Rinto said.

"Yes," Cáelán said quietly. "If the Ushiromiya family get their hands on those mines, we will all of us, simply put, be _broke_."

"But that doesn't make any damn sense! Why the hell would the Ushiromiya family want _our_ mines?" Len snapped.

"If you would listen to what Cáelán has just said, then maybe you _would_ understand!" RIn snapped back.

"I heard him! But it still doesn't make sense!"

"To _cripple_ us, Len! _That_ is their reason! They wish to see us out of the way!" Rin said, her patience wearing thin, trying to get her twin to see what she has already seen. What they _all_ have already seen.

"No," Len shook his head. "We've never bothered them and they've never bothered us. So why start now?"

"I told you," was Rin's clipped reply.

"Even if what you say is true...why would they want to declare war on us _now_? Why not years earlier when the mines were _first_ discovered?" Len argued.

Rin opened her mouth and shut it very quickly, at a loss of words. It seemed to Len that his twin hadn't thought of that.

 _Hmph...can't think of all the answers, all the possible scenarios, all the reasons, can you, Rin?_ he thought, smugly.

His twin regained herself quickly and coolly said, "It doesn't matter. They're declaring war on our family and we need to protect ourselves. Are you in or out?"

It appeared that she was saying, "Will you fight with us?" But what she was actually saying was, "Will you kill in my name?"

Len hesitated for a while. He wasn't sure if he was ready to kill in his sister's name. He wasn't sure if he was ready to kill in _anyone's_ name. But she was his blood and the head of the Kagamine family; it was his job as her brother to keep her safe.

But then again...there was the possibly that she played a hand in their mother's death, and possibly playing to end his life as well, and he didn't want to associate with somebody who committed matricide.

"I don't know, Rin," he admitted. "I'm not sure if I'm ready to kill in your name nor am I sure that I want to have anything to do with this. And, quite frankly, I'm not sure if I even _want_ to kill for you."

She nodded her head, thinking his answer over. It was silent for a while and then...

"Very well brother," she said standing up. Walking past him out the door she said, "Let's see what your answer will be after you've received sixty lashes."

 _S-sixty lashes?!_ Len thought, eyes widening. He knew she would not like his answer, but _sixty_ lashes? That could kill a person!

 _Is that...her intention? To_ kill _me?_ Len thought and then became angry. _No way! I'm not letting her whip me like a dog 'til I'm dead!_

He was ready to yell at his twin, but he couldn't even get the first word out when he was suddenly grabbed by both arms and dragged out of the room.

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 _ **A/N: One person reviewed this story so far?! Somebody actually likes this story! Yay! Thank you,**_ **iloveyugiohGX93!** _ **Thank you very much!**_

 _ **I think I forgot to mention that in this story Len is eighteen years old. Why? Well, you'll see in later chapters. Also...Cáelán speaks! Just note that him speaking will be rare thing. He's somewhat of a tsundere and a year older than Len and Rin.**_

 _ **Please read and review! It makes me happy!**_


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